Responses to "protests" shutting down Trump presentations

Posted by David Hardy · 12 March 2016 01:13 PM

Instapundit asks "Since MoveOn has been so public about taking credit, will the famously litigious Trump sue them for conspiring to deprive him of his civil rights? Because I would, and the discovery would be fascinating."

42 U.S.C. §1985(3) seems to fite nicely. Since it's rather long, I'll truncate it a little and highlight the parts that seem to fit.

"If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire or go in disguise on the highway or on the premises of another, for the purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws;... or if two or more persons conspire to prevent by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner, toward or in favor of the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector for President .... the party so injured or deprived may have an action for the recovery of damages occasioned by such injury or deprivation, against any one or more of the conspirators."

Even under the narrow reading of The Slaughterhouse Cases and Cruikshank, running for federal office is a privilege or immunity of citizenship: the Constitution created Federal offices, and thus the right to run for them. §1985(3) seems to cover the conduct in two ways, and since any conspirator is liable for the result, everyone involved is a potential defendant. And, yes, the plaintiff can recover attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. §1988.

"Confessed to what exactly? Please list exactly what they confessed to?"

You're so lazy you can't look it up, or such a partisan you are denying it?

"Ilya Sheyman, a failed Illinois contender for Congress and the executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, has taken credit for the violence at a cancelled Trump event last night in Chicago. He promised similar violence and disruption will occur at future Trump political events leading up to the election."